1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stacking apparatus for deep-drawn articles of plastics material, particularly articles manufactured in a thermoforming machine. The apparatus includes a lower stacking plate and an upper stacking plate which are adapted to receive formed articles from the forming die of the thermoforming machine. The lower and upper stacking plates are used to form a vertical stack of formed articles. The upper stacking plate, including a stack of formed articles carried by the upper stacking plate, can be raised to a position on the working level of a removal station.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Stacking apparatus of the above-described type are known. In these stacking apparatus, the transfer of stacks of formed articles to the removal station can be carried out without having to interrupt the manufacture of deep-drawn articles of plastics material in the forming die. The reason for this is that the stack of formed articles can be moved into the range of the removal station by means of the upper stacking plate, while the lower stacking plate continues to receive and form a stack of formed articles which are during this period, manufactured by and ejected from the forming die. The thermoforming machines are conventionally equipped with forming dies which manufacture several deep-drawn articles of plastics material in a single work step, i.e., simultaneously, and, therefore, must ensure the formation of a corresponding number of stacks of formed articles. These stacks must then be transferred simultaneously and in ordered positions to the removal station.
These known stacking apparatus have the significant disadvantage that the stacks of formed articles received from the removal station are further conveyed in the upright stacking position and can during the transport movement change their relative positions to each other in an undesirable manner, so that an ordered transfer to a removal station, a packing station or a treatment or working station is impaired.
It is, therefore, the primary object of the present invention to provide a stacking apparatus of the above-described type in which it is possible to change the position of the stacks of formed articles received from the removal station and which simultaneously ensures an ordered further transport of these stacks into the range of a subsequent packing station, treatment station or working station.